Article ID: CBB000953002

Modular Arithmetic before C. F. Gauss: Systematizations and Discussions on Remainder Problems in 18th-Century Germany (2009)

unapi

Remainder problems have a long tradition and were widely disseminated in books on calculation, algebra, and recreational mathematics from the 13th century until the 18th century. Many singular solution methods for particular cases were known, but Bachet de Méziriac was the first to see how these methods connected with the Euclidean algorithm and with Diophantine analysis (1624). His general solution method contributed to the theory of equations in France, but went largely unnoticed elsewhere. Later Euler independently rediscovered similar methods, while von Clausberg generalized and systematized methods that used the greatest common divisor procedure. These were followed by Euler's and Lagrange's continued fraction solution methods and Hindenburg's combinatorial solution. Shortly afterwards, Gauss, in the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, proposed a new formalism based on his method of congruences and created the modular arithmetic framework in which these problems are posed today.

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Authors & Contributors
Bullynck, Maarten
Éric Chassefière
Rommevaux-Tani, Sabine
Zaitsev, Evgeny
Xing, Ying-rui
Ullrich, Peter
Concepts
Mathematics
Arithmetic
Biographies
Geometry
Number theory; number concept
Calculus
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century, early
17th century
Renaissance
16th century
Places
Germany
Russia
Nuremberg (Germany)
Florence (Italy)
Spain
France
Institutions
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
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